A common problem in the production of a multimedia program is dialog and other sound editing. Audio tracks often are searched for desired words, sentences, or other sound effects, (often called "clips") and appropriate mark-in and mark-out points are selected. These "clips" must then be synchronized with video or other media with which they are associated in a multimedia program. In conventional, linear editing, relying on analog or digital source tape, an editor linearly searches (i.e., jogs) through the source tape until a word break is detected. This process is slow even for an experienced editor.
In computerized editing systems, such as a digital audio workstation available from Avid Technology, Inc. of Tewksbury, Mass. and a digital video workstation (e.g., Media Composer or Media Suite Pro, also available from Avid Technology, Inc.) the audio editing process has been made somewhat easier by providing a representation of the audio waveform for the audio track being edited.
Other available digital audio workstations include: the DSE-7000, from AKG Acoustics, Inc. of San Leandro, Calif.; the DDR-10 from Otari Corp. of Tokyo, Japan; the Audio File Plus, from AMC Industries, PLC of Bernley, Great Britain; Dyaxis from Studer Editech of Menlo Park, Calif.; and Waveframe 401 from Waveframe, Inc., of Sherman Oaks, Calif.
Other available digital video workstations which allow for audio editing include: Video F/X Plus from Digital F/X of Mountain View, Calif.; Studio from Matrox of Dorval, Quebec, Canada; Premier 2.0 from Adobe Systems, Inc., of Mountain View, Calif.; EMC2 from Edit Machines Corporation of Washington, D.C.; Lightworks from OLE Partners, LTD., of London, England; and Picture Processor System III from Montage Group, Ltd., of New York, N.Y.
An audio waveform can be an amplitude or an energy (absolute value of the amplitude) plot. Unfortunately, a fair amount of experience is still needed to interpret these waveforms in order to take full advantage of their utility.